“In early April 2002, I was having breakfast with my mother in Topanga, Calif., when I absentmindedly touched the left side of my neck. My hand rested on a golf-ball size lump. The next day, my doctor took a biopsy and told me it was Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” helped me get through what came next.

Hearing the doctor’s news came as a shock. I was 28 and had thought I was invincible. The drive back to Topanga that day was lonely. I called my manager, and she settled me down. I was already assuming the worst. I started my six months of chemotherapy at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai at the end of April 2002.

In late October, toward the end of my treatment, I was driving home when I heard “Lose Yourself” on the radio for the first time. It was from Eminem’s film, “8 Mile.”

The lyric reminded me of my pre-cancer past, but the rest of the song was about the singer’s struggle to survive. I could relate. My cancer had been stopped by the treatment, but I had to go back to Cedars for check-ups every six months for eight years. Traveling back and forth, “Lose Yourself” propped me up and pushed me forward.

Today, I’m healthy and cancer-free. Not long ago, one of my sons discovered “Lose Yourself” and asked if I knew it. I winked and said, “Yeah, I know the song.” One day I’ll tell him what it meant to me.”